Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Darwin’s Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis says plans for an RV park at Bundilla Beach will got to a vote at a Council meeting tonight

Transcript

Darwin’s Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis says plans for an RV park at Bundilla Beach will got to a vote at a Council meeting tonight · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now joining me in the studio is the Lord Mayor
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of Darwin, Convat Scarlets.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Good morning to u Khn.
• 0:05
  Speaker 3: Good morning Katy, and we're heading for a very very
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: busy weekend. Like the last weekend, I certainly we Sison
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: when everything happens. And this weekend actually say Sunday for
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: fourth and Monday the fifth, we've got a big event
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: in Darwick.
• 0:18
  Speaker 4: We've got the Darwin in the National dragon Boats.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: We will go to that in just a minute, con
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: but I'm keen to catch up with you first and
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: ask a few questions about this situation with the r
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: V park because it's something that we've spoken about quite
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: a bit. And the results of the City of Darwin survey,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: which was filled out as I understand it, by about
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: five hundred and twenty four people, it revealed a small
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: majority are against the temporary development.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Can you tell me those numbers?
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: Are you surprised?
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: I am not, especially when the local never run a
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: campaign asking all Locker residents to vote against it. Now,
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: one thing I have to remind this area does not
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: belong to the local residence, only belong to all the
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: people of Darwi. Now, it was the local rangers that
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: the local resident was complaining bitterly about the social behavior
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: or criminal behavior, as Deabie mentioned before, and they wanted
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: something to be done, and the government put a lot
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: of money to put the patrol. So here comes up
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: council that says, well, the better ways of actually controlling
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: social behavior by activating the area so the riff raff
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: will move, And the local member says, no, that's not
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: a good idea. I don't like it, so let's all
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: vote against it now. Of course, if you look at
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: today's and the news and their gallop, I think there
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: was only one message there against it from Rosemary, who
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: says she doesn't like it, but she wants theirteeners to
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: be moved.
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  Speaker 4: First of all, we propose a trial, let's try something.
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  Speaker 4: Do it.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Well, this is.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Where I am at. I actually think, why not Key?
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Is something else to god a situation? Well, we've got
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: a situation right now with it's nothing happening down there,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: you know, it's it's a beautiful spoush And I know
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: not everybody's going to agree with that. But if we've
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: got a small number of aves down there, if there
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: is actually the infrastructure there that's you know, that's able
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: to support them being there is there a way that
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: we can do it. Give it a trial, see if
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: it works. If it's a playful situation.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: You don't do it again, Causing it's not that we're
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: actually putting four hundred r v's in the park. We're
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: proposing a small scale trial for a period of time
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  Speaker 3: to find out if it works. We have to try something.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: We can't just sit a answers. It can't be done.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: It's too difficult, put into too difficult basket. Now, let's
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: try something to see if it works.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: So corn, is it going to go to a vote
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: tonight or what's the process? Now?
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Councils going to consider it tonight. There are thirty councils,
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: are thirteen different opinions. They're going to consider it again.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to predict hard we'll go. It might
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: be lost, it might be in and be a go.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: But again my thing is, guys, come down, it's a trial.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: We have to try something. If we try and succeed,
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: I'll bet you you're not going to come out it's
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: a great idea. You're going to stay very quiet like
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: you did with a cafe in night. But if it
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: does work, the councils says Okay, it didn't work. Let's
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: see what else can we do to do to activate
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: the place and bring more people there. The reality is
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: you bring cars, you bring people, you build action in
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: a place, and all of a sudden things disappear. We've
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: seen that before and we'll see it again. Every time
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: we do something that brings more people in an area,
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: all the raft disappear.
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: Yes, it displays the problem.
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  Speaker 3: I know that the problem is not going to be
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  Speaker 3: solved unless tough government action is taken to control crime,
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: to control alcohol, and to put sent people back to country.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Do you think the government's doing enough right now with
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: those three areas they're trying.
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  Speaker 3: The message again from the Chief Minister is that yes,
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: they want to work with us to do it, and I'm.
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  Speaker 4: Very thankful for that.
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  Speaker 3: For example, we sign on a memorand of understanding with
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: correct corrections to give us lot of security prisoners to
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  Speaker 3: clean the area around. I met yesterday with a police
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  Speaker 3: commissioner who told me that they work very actively. They've
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: got patrols on the street and I heard the keyboards
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: community policing first time after a long long time. Looks
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: like Mike Murphy gets it that community policing is the
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: secret to actually address the product we face today.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Well, let's see if we do see some change in
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: this space. But just to go back to those RvEs.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: So we'll need to go to a vote tonight and
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  Speaker 1: the majority of counselors will need to vote for your head.
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: To go ahead.
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  Speaker 3: We heard this morning. I heard a couple of people talking,
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: especially the president of the ski lumpses. They were supporting it.
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  Speaker 3: They had some concerns about how it's going to be done.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: We said the same concerns. Yes, we have to put
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: facilities there. Yes, we have to put a damp point there.
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  Speaker 3: I understand that one. Yes we have to control it.
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  Speaker 3: We don't want people to pack. There arevis within here
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  Speaker 3: and they're everywhere in the park, so it's going to
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  Speaker 3: be strictly controlled.
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  Speaker 4: But again the keyboard is trial. We have to try.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Well, let's write and see exactly what happens tonight. I'll
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: be really interested to see how it.
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  Speaker 4: All goes and how to see what happened and.
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  Speaker 2: If it is for how quickly could it get up
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: and running.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we have to find somebody we to operate it.
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  Speaker 3: We have to see how we're going to do it.
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  Speaker 3: We're not going to go just there here, we've what yes,
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  Speaker 3: come and parking where you like. If he has to
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  Speaker 3: be done properly, because the last thing we want is
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: to fail because we didn't do it.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: I mean the dry seasons here though right now, So
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: if you already got somebody in mind who might be
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: able to run it given the fact that we're literally
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: we had.
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  Speaker 3: A lot of people saying that we would like to
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: do it. Let's see who wants to do it again
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  Speaker 3: under string conditions and council supervision, and if it walks
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  Speaker 3: this year, we might actually run another one next year
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: to see how effective can be.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Con a couple of listener questions we did get people
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: get in contact with us after attending the soccer on
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: the weekend at the suburban grounds in the Kara saying
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: that parking offices were booking people who are on the
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: sidewalks or on that area to the side. Why is
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: the council doing that, especially on a weekend. I mean
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  Speaker 1: there's not a lot of parking there, only along the street.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: It's is it revenue raising?
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  Speaker 4: No, because we receive complaints from residents.
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  Speaker 3: I'd love the people block drivewayst or the parking places
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: where they should be parking in yellow lines, they're parking
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: on gruss areas, parking or on foot paths. We'll receive
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: the same complaints when we've got markets in Nightcliff, or
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: if the same complaints when we've got park markets in Perrupt.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: So it's generated by complaints by the local residents.
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: Now they do with us. We don't want to rast money,
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  Speaker 4: we want to accommodate.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Could you just give people a warning rather than a fine?
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  Speaker 4: Well, the problem is they know that they know it's
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  Speaker 4: a yellow light.
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  Speaker 3: What more warning do you do you need if you
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: need there's a non parking stop, if there's a driveway,
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  Speaker 3: if it's a bus stop, do you need really more warning?
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  Speaker 3: Can you see it that you should be parking there?
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  Speaker 3: I mean common sense hard?
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  Speaker 1: I guess like I wasn't there on the weekend. I
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  Speaker 1: was at Baggett, so I don't know. It's actually I
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: was at the Portuguese club, so I can't even I
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  Speaker 1: can't speak for those that were at Nakara, but I
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  Speaker 1: do know that it can be very difficult on those
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: days when soccer is happening at various different locations, because
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  Speaker 1: you've got such a high volume of people participating in
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: kids taking part and there's bugger all parks in some locations.
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  Speaker 4: No, there is plenty of parking.
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  Speaker 2: It's not. Actually there's not. When it's full, there's not parks.
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  Speaker 2: Have you been there on a Sunday and saying how
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  Speaker 2: many people there?
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  Speaker 4: Coch? Yes, I do. Actually in Nakara used to be
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  Speaker 4: my elector.
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  Speaker 2: And there's not a lot of parks around.
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  Speaker 4: Parking there that people park on the streets.
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  Speaker 3: Now we have discussed that one with the sport people,
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  Speaker 3: the soccer groups. They agree with us, they want to
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: see proper parking. But people and I've seen it again,
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  Speaker 3: and I've said in the city sometimes where people decided,
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: well it's a park, I'm entitled to park on it.
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  Speaker 4: No you're not.
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  Speaker 1: But do you know sometimes there is literally just people
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  Speaker 1: parked on the side of the road and they're parked
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  Speaker 1: on the side of the road, or they're parked in
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  Speaker 1: an area in the car park that's maybe up on
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  Speaker 1: one of the nature strips in the car park area,
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  Speaker 1: and they're getting in trouble for that kind of thing
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  Speaker 1: as well.
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  Speaker 3: You're not allowed to park on a native or the
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  Speaker 3: natural strip. You're not allowed to on a footpath. You're
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: not allowed to park on parks. You're allowed to park
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  Speaker 3: on streets. And none of these people that they park
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: on the streets got to find. Obviously the people got
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: to find they didn't obey the roads.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: So people can expect if they're taking the kids to
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: soccer on a Sunday morning, if you're not parked in
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  Speaker 1: the correct areas, expect to find that.
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  Speaker 3: Happens everywhere, not only in your The same thing a
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: plaster bago. If somebody decides to park on the native
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: strip next to the trial road, you're going to be fine.
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  Speaker 2: You're created a car park there.
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  Speaker 1: Bag it other car parks a little bit smaller than
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  Speaker 1: what they were previously.
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: No, actually it's bigger, bigger.
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  Speaker 3: We put bigger bit because we remove quite a few
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  Speaker 3: trees and we're rearranged again. We never close car parks down. Instead,
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: we actually want to make it bigger and bag baggots.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Typical exact as in added more car parks in or
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: cars parks.
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  Speaker 4: Rearranging, rearranging it.
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  Speaker 3: It's exactly the same size, but by removing a lot
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: of trees you can provide a few more cast casts.
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  Speaker 2: Are the car spaces the same size? I know I'm
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: getting it.
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  Speaker 4: By Australian standards.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: They have to We can't just engine because you've got
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: a big four ward drive. This is the Australian standards
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: we have.
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: To comply with.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Corn Now, a big event this weekend, as you've touched on,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: we've sort of mentioned it a couple of times over
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: the last few weeks, but a massive event with the
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: dragon boat racing. It's coming to the Northern Territory, the
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: dragon Boat Festival. It's on Sunday. Tell us what we
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: can expect.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: Well, you know very well, we've got a big Chinese
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: community in Darwin and there was a tradition to have
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: a dragon board races every year. Now COVID disrupted a bit,
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: but this year we've got a coup We managed to
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: get money from the Federal government, then other territory major
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: events and the Foundation for Australia China Relationship and we
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: organize not only any international dragon boat festival.
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: But actually a trade show.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: So we invited all our sisters and friendly shipies around us,
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: around the region Southeast Asia. So we have people from
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: Balik coming, Coupang are coming, people from Qin Tao in China,
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: brim from Quanjo in China and they will participate the
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: dragon Board races against Australian teams. And then on Monday,
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: we've got a trade so which all our sister cities
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: are going to do presentations, what they produce, what are
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: the trade opportunities we have with them, and we display
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: our own trade opportunities to them. Because there's no better
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: way to get some to know somebody really well. But
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: commercial exchanges, we had a lot of interest. We actually
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: had interest from local people who found out about it.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: Says I didn't know anything about it. Can I get information?
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: I'd like to display my trades so there and we
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: actually accommodate them.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: How many involved you reckon? How many that the show?
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: For example?
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: To tell you the truth, we started very small and
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: now it's getting bigger than We've got a huge delegation
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: from Bali. We've got a big delegation from Kwanzo. We
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: have a big delegation from Chintown. Now the thing with
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: Kwanjoy is really good because what I'm trying to do now,
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: I'm trying to find a way to bring back the
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: Chinese aligne used to fly to Dow. It's very difficult
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: to fly out of Darwin to Asy. It's only Jet
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: Style flies to Bali and only the Singapore Airline flies
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: to Singapore. And try to get a ticket to Singapore,
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: It's very difficult unless you prepare to pay business classes.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: So you're trying to sort of rally to see if
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: we can get a flysh.
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: We get help from Quanjoys and Jen to bring back
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: that airline to Dowy. They open now they want to
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: trade with Australia, but we know we've got flights to
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: other capital seats in Australia if we can get one
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: here first of all with help us at locals. Second,
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: the Universe tried to bring foreign students and one of
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: their markets China.
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: It's only five hours from China, Dowy. Think about it.
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: If people can fly with five.
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: Hours to Darwin instead of ten and eleven down south,
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: we can bring too.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Do you reckon they became Do you think that they'll
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: be king to get that route going again?
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Was it very popular last time round?
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: Well, they did really.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: Well last time and if it was not for COVID,
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: it would be still flying. The article going to Hainan
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: and Hai Court speaking to a principle of a small
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: high school. We had seven thousand students. When they find
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: out we had an airline flight to Darwin five hours
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: only and nowin actually it's multicultural, they were very excited.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: He says, why would they know about it? Well, we
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: want to go and tell them about it, and I'd
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: love to go together with the territory government, try to
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: entice the airline back and more trade with China. Does
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: matter what happened the political level. We had a very
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: good relationship with regards to trade and mining and things
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: coming to Australia, and we want to bring more tourists.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: We are going to have to wrap up.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Tell us if people want to head along to the
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: dragon Boat Racing, what time do they need to get there.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: Have a look at our website because you know we
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: say we'll start eight o'clock or nine o'clock. The reality
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: we never start in time because there's so many things happen.
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: It's typical Dowin. But have a look at our website.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: It will give you all the information when and where
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: to be. It will be down at the waterfront and
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: we're going to start very early in the morning eight o'clock.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: I'm going to dot the eyes of the dragon in
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: the boats and from there on we'll.
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: Start the races.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Convet Scarlet. It's always good to catch up. Thanks so
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: much for your time this morning.
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: Morning.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Thank you